Andrew Hornery

Michael Kroger before the auction in France with a portrait of a post-abdication Napoleon Bonaparte from the school of Delaroche. Photo: AFP

IT HAD been his passion since he was a boy, inspired by his mother's love of antiques, but after collecting a vast array of Napoleonic objets d'art and re-creating his very own ''imperial palace'' in South Yarra, Liberal Party powerbroker Michael Kroger is finally over his Napoleon complex.

At an auction in the shadow of the grand Chateau de Fontainebleau outside Paris yesterday, the Michael Kroger Collection, including imperial eagles, towering bronze candelabra, antique clocks, vases, paintings, chairs, sideboards, gilt mirrors and military paraphernalia, went under the hammer, raising more than $500,000 for the businessman.

The auction took place not far from where Napoleon Bonaparte bid a teary farewell to his empire nearly 200 years ago, after his abdication. But Mr Kroger's emotions were considerably less glum, especially with several lots earning well above the reserve and his new girlfriend, conservative commentator and former fellow ABC board member Janet Albrechtsen, offering support.

A clock in Levanto marble, with rich gilt and bronze decoration inspired by Jean de La Fontaine's fables and featuring animal characters such as the fox, stork and wolf, sold for €21,875 ($A30,265), nearly twice its reserve. A watercolour pennant design for Napoleon's 2nd Artillery sold for €38,750.

Mr Kroger's favourite item in the collection, a painting featuring a dejected-looking Napoleon, which was billed as one of the seven original copies of a post-abdication portrait by the school of Delaroche, made €38,750.

Mr Kroger declined to comment on the auction, but a spokeswoman for French auction house Osenat, which handled the sale, described it as a success and said ''Mr Kroger was very happy''.

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She said the items were bought by private French and foreign collectors, and a large audience had been to see the exhibition and sale, its Australian collector considered a curiosity among the French.

In a 2009 interview with the Napoleon Society, conducted before he separated from wife Ann Peacock, whom he described as ''less than enthusiastic'' about the collection, Mr Kroger explained his interest in the historic figure.

''I found it extraordinary he was surrounded by such extraordinary brutality and yet at the same time was a man of such remarkable refinement and taste,'' he said.

''Whether you are a business leader or political leader, you need people around you who are prepared to tell you the truth.

''That's the great lesson for me from Napoleon's life. There were very few around him prepared to do that.''